When Edmund Hillary stepped onto the summit of Mount Everest at 11.30 on 29th May 1953 he didn’t admire the view, or dance a jig of triumph. No, he reported that the first thing he did was to look for traces of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. The mystery of what happened to Mallory and … Read more
The great nation of India has a deep fascination with Mount Everest and has given us many fine mountaineers. We hear a great deal about the first Indian men to climb Everest, but who was the first Indian woman to climb the world’s highest mountain? The first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest was Bachendri … Read more
To be the first climber from your country to climb Mount Everest is a great ambition. But to be the first woman from your country is even harder to achieve. Stacey Allison was the first American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, arriving there on September 29, 1988. She showed all the usual … Read more
Many climbers dream of summiting Mount Everest, but to be the first to do so from your own country is a very special ambition. When answering the question: “who was the first Indian summiteer?” it is important to make the distinction between Indian born, and Indian citizen. Avtar Singh Cheema was the first Indian-born man … Read more
After Mount Everest was climbed, mountaineers around the world scrambled to be the first from their country to climb the world’s highest mountain. The first American man to climb Mount Everest was Jim Whittaker, reaching the summit by the South Col route on May 1, 1963. He was born on February 10, 1929 which made … Read more
Tenzing Norgay was named by Time magazine as one of 100 most influential people of the Twentieth Century, being one of the two climbers who are known to have first reached the summit of Mount Everest. Despite that huge achievement it is fair to say that he had mixed feelings about it. His huge fame … Read more
Bottled oxygen was first used in mountaineering on the first serious attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1922. Before then, the highest summit climbed was the 23,386 ft (7,128 metres) Paunhunri. This was not high enough to require the use of bottled oxygen. However, oxygen is needed above about 26,200 ft (8,000 metres) and so … Read more
The notorious Khumbu Icefall is the first and most dangerous section of the standard South Col route to the summit of Mount Everest. Here we discuss what the Icefall is, why it is so dangerous, and what happens to those caught within its crushing embrace. What is the Khumbu Icefall? The Khumbu Glacier is a … Read more
There’s always snow on Mount Everest, even though it lies on the border between two countries that are either partly tropical jungle (Nepal) or arid desert (Tibet). Most high mountains, even some on the equator, have snow on their tops. Meanwhile, the plains around them are hot and dry. Why is that? Mount Everest is … Read more
We Western climbers are very quick to make sure our Mount Everest climb to the summit is recorded. But what about the Sherpa and other Nepali climbers who put in all the ropes, carry all our stuff and then lead us to the top? Who records how many Sherpas have climbed Everest? The simple, scandalous … Read more
